Women in engineering: challenges and opportunities

As the makeup of the electrical engineering workforce changes to include more women engineers, industry is recognizing that their competitive advantage can be strengthened by the unique perspective that women can bring to the workplace. The efforts established through academia, professional organizations, and industry have helped to attract and retain women in the engineering profession by enabling talented people to develop to their fullest potential. More importantly, a greater challenge lies with the men and women who make up the engineering profession, managers as well as co-workers. Managers need to initiate the necessary changes in the day-to-day activity in the workplace, in promotions and assignments, and in employees benefits. They also need to support programs that expose women to engineering, and co-workers need to be willing to be involved in these programs. Co-workers need to be actively involved in creating a respectful environment where everyone can feel valued. It is through these efforts that an environment will be created where competent engineers will have the opportunity to perform to the peak of their abilities and industry will reap the benefits of a diverse workforce